Crystal G.H. Lowery: "Faith Made It Logical - Complete Trust in God"

Hebrews 11:19 (TPT), "Abraham's faith made it logical to him that God could raise Isaac from the dead, and symbolically, that's exactly what happened."

Knowing the Voice of God

We need to start thinking differently. When we define our methods by the world's standards, we taint our ability to see clearly through eyes of faith. What we put into our minds is what grows. What we put into our hearts and souls is what will begin to flourish. In some ways, there is nothing necessarily wrong about some methods or strategies that the world presents, but it is imperative that we don't start from that point. We must start from the foundation of knowing the voice of God. This is such a key to anything in life.

When we typically think about faith, usually people get the idea that it will all go against normal or worldly logic. We think that God will have us step out in faith and do something that seems so crazy. However, what I am trying to emphasize is that if we have transformed our thought life, then whatever God tells us to do is normal. That is the starting point. We don't begin from twisted thinking. We begin from God Himself – Truth and Purity, Himself. There is no way that can be illogical.

How We Please God

Hebrews 11:6 (TPT) says, "And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith knowing that He is real and that He rewards the faith of those who give all their passion and strength into seeking Him."

In order to please God, we must have faith in Him. Believing and trusting in Him is crucial. How can we have a relationship with someone without trusting them? We must have faith in order to have a healthy relationship, otherwise there are broken dynamics working in the relationship. For example, how can you have a healthy marriage if one person doesn't trust the other person? In order for the marriage to work you absolutely have to have trust.

The same is true with our relationship with God. We must put our faith in Him alone. If we don't put 100% of our faith in Him, then we are not fully trusting Him. What He says is truth. He is not a man that He could ever lie, so His words are absolute truth. We can take them to the bank. God is the Creator of us. He knows how we work. He knows what we need. He knows everything we will ever need. He knows everything about us. Just like a manufacturer creates a product and has an instruction manual, God knows how to make us work just perfectly.

The Father of Faith

When I think about Abraham and his journey of faith, there are so many things that stand out to me. Abraham is called the Father of our faith. Looking at his life and examining his faith should be something that we all do if we want to better understand the concept of faith and making it a reality.

Put yourself in Abraham's shoes (or sandals). He left his homeland to go to a Promised Land. He didn't know where he was going, but he went. God told him he was going to be the father of many nations. He had a picture of his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. The number of descendants promised to Abraham is staggering. HOWEVER, he was old and Sarah was old. Sarah was too old to have children and they had NONE. Abraham waited decades for even one child. During all this waiting he went from being old to being really old. Do you get the picture? Abraham was a real man, not just a character from a story.

Finally, Abraham and Sarah receive the promise of a son – Isaac. It is through Isaac that these descendants will come. Isaac is the prize. He is the gift. He is the initial part of the promise. He is crucial to having descendants.

Committed in Trust

But...God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. What? How can this be? Isaac was the promised child. How can there be descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore if Isaac is sacrificed (human logic would say)? Isaac didn't have any children of his own yet. Could Abraham and Sarah have more children? These are strategies that would start to brew in the human mind.

The amazing thing is is that Abraham obeyed. He was WILLING to obey. If we can stay away from letting the story be so familiar to us that we don't think about Abraham's humanity, we will gain insight here! Abraham was just a man. Yet, in the face of what seemed to take away the promise, he STILL obeyed. This is the point in the story where a majority of people would have fallen off the cliff of faith. But faith is faith. Abraham was committed. He had settled the issue of trusting God. He knew God was his source of everything. This is powerful!

His Timing is Perfect

As Abraham was ready to bring the ax down on Isaac, a ram appeared just at the right MOMENT! God's timing is always perfect. Allowing our faith in God to work with God's perfect timing creates immaculate circumstances. We know that the ram was then used as the sacrifice and Isaac was not killed on the alter. If Abraham had received advice from his friends, I can only imagine what advice he would have heard. If Abraham had received the advice of the professionals of that day, I can almost tell you it would have been contrary to obeying God. All of the advice from Abraham's friends and circle of advisors would have been what the world would have called "good advice" from caring friends and professionals who meant no harm but were just advising from a different starting point. That advice would not have been founded on knowing the voice of God.

Trading the World's Baseline for God's Lifeline

Psalm 101:6 (TPT) says, "My innermost circle will only be those whom I know are pure and godly. They will be the only ones I allow to minister to me." If we have the desire to get advice from other people, we should be making absolutely sure they are pure and godly. Even then, we need to go back to knowing the voice of God. That is our baseline. That is our lifeline.

So, Abraham knew God's voice. He trusted God absolutely. Abraham had transformed his thoughts by a lifetime of being with God, trusting God, and living by faith. He pushed aside the world's baseline for what is logical and ushered in obeying the voice of God as the gold standard for what is logical. You can't have faith in just anything or anyone. The faith I am speaking of is absolute faith in God.

When we absolutely commit ourselves to LIVING BY FAITH in God alone, we transform our thoughts. When we pour the Word and voice of God into our lives, they will flourish and grow. Faith becomes the logical thing when it is the thing that is continually sown into our lives and grows. Faith becomes the lifeline to the promises – the only way to do it! When this is the garden of our lives, then we can say, "FAITH MADE IT LOGICAL." (To Subscribe to the Elijah List subscribe here.)

Crystal G.H. Lowery
Based On Faith
Email: info@basedonfaith.org
Website: www.basedonfaith.org

Crystal G.H. Lowery founded Based On Faith in 2012. Based On Faith strives to inspire and help people to think and live differently from traditional or orthodox patterns. The goal is to shed light on darkness. Crystal speaks to groups, organizations, and churches as well as continues to write. Crystal is also the principle and founding attorney of Law Office Of Crystal G.H. Lowery, LLC, a firm dedicated to estate planning, elder law, Veteran planning, business planning, and entertainment law. Crystal earned a B.A. in Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations from Virginia Tech, and earned a M.A. in Communications with an emphasis in producing and directing for film and television from Regent University School of Communications and the Arts. In addition, she earned a J.D. from Regent University School of Law. Crystal is a mother of four children, ages 10, 7, 5, and 3. She believes that being a mom is one of the greatest blessings in her life. Crystal was married to her husband, Kevin, for almost 17 years. In 2018, he went to be with Jesus.

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